In fact, I'm much more curious as to why people want more gore? To me, it doesn't seem to add anything to the game except make it intensely more violent, which if I wanted mindless violence, I'd play Gears of War. Personally, the only thing that I care about going in to TES is having an immense world with intricate story lines.
Because it seems rather silly for people to be fighting or killing each other with swords and axes and other weapons that can cause very nasty wounds and NOT see any blood. When that sort of thing happens, I get the impression that the designers are intentionally watering down the violence to make it safe for children. Fighting isn't supposed to be pretty and clean. It should be a brutal act, otherwise, it just doesn't carry the same feeling.
Now I'm not saying I want to see heads and arms flying left and right, that would just be too extreme. But I would definately want Bethesda to try harder to portray the brutality of Medieval combat. If Bethesda really isn't trying to aim for a T rating, then they should show me what my claymore does to the person I'm trying to kill, maybe then, I'd actually feel bad about killing innocent people. The way things were handled in Morrowind and Oblivion, seeing someone die didn't do much at all, though partially I blame this on the fact that the way the characters were written, they had about as much personality to them as a rock and I had about the same level of concern for the fates of most of them. But that's a subject for another discussion, as you don't need anything that would get your game an M rating to create characters that people might actually care about.
I would actually not object to seeing a little bit in the way of sixual themes in the game, though. I don't need the player to actually be able to have six, and as far as nudity goes, provided it's handled well in the game (In other words, nudity is used as a means to add a greater level of believability to the game, not just for fan service.) I would see its presence as a good thing, but Bethesda would probably be wiser to just leave it up to modders, as adding it to the game would be a bit of a risk, while certainly, having nudity in your game doesn't guarentee an AO rating, as shown by the fact that some recent gams have included it and got off with an M rating, I'd still say it's safer to avoid it as long as such content in video games is not considered acceptable by most, as it would just give the "Video games are corrupting our youth! Oh my GOOOOOOOOD!!!" crowd more fuel. Still, it would be nice if there was some evidence that the NPCs, at the very least, had that kind of relationships, for reasons that have already been stated. I don't really need anything explicit, mind you, but I'd like some acknowledgement that the people of Tamriel have interest in that sort of thing, mainly because it would help to make characters that feel a little more believable and alive, which would hopefully help to overcome the issue of me not caring about any of the NPCs. As far as romance for the player, though, its existence would not bother me, provided that it was well written, optional (After all, if you use freedom as a selling point for your game, then you have to at least give me such basic freedoms as the choice NOT to be involved in a romantic relationship with someone.) and the player had a number of different potential love interests to choose from (After all, I don't want to pursue a relationship with a character I don't actually like, or who I just can't see my character wanting to be with, why would my Argonian want a Dunmer woman?) but it isn't really necessary. That's not really what's most important to the series, and it's quite understandable if Bethesda does not do it. I'm not really confident Bethesda could accomplish the well written part anyway, even though I would expect to see the other two.
But as far as the rating of the game itself, though, I expect it would be either T or M, without knowing what Bethesda is doing, if indeed they're working on the Elder Scrolls V, I can't say what rating it will get exactly, but the lowest rating I could see it getting is T, after all, that's what Morrowind got, and what Oblivion got before ESRB decided to change the rating, and I can't really see an Elder Scrolls game getting a lower rating, at least not one rendered with the graphical standards of modern conoles, even if the game did not have any blood at all, I think just the presence of quite lethal combat between actual people would ensure at least a T rating, which rating it gets will probably depend on how much blood and gore the game has, as aside from that, sixual content, or strong language, there isn't much else I could see that would earn a game like this an M rating, and I don't expect the sixual content to be any more explicit than in Morrowind or Oblivion, and I doubt Bethesda will put any language stronger than what we heard in Oblivion in the game.. I hope for an M rating, though, as I feel that if Bethesda makes the game I want the next Elder Scrolls to be, it won't be able to get anything less than that. Though what I really want is for Bethesda to not worry about the rating and just make the game they want to make, then let ESRB give it whatever rating they feel it deserves.
as is overly-done amounts of gore (Fallout 3, anyone?).
Fallout would not be what it is without gratuitous gory deaths, the series has had that since the beginning (You didn't think Bloody Mess was only created when Bethesda took up the series, did you?) and without it, it just wouldn't feel right. Still, Fallout 3's gore was kind of unrealistic, and in future Elder Scrolls games, while I do want more gore than Oblivion, I want it to be more realistic than Fallout 3, it doesn't need to be totally realistic, but I don't want to see all four of a person's limbs explode into gory bits after getting hit by a fireball while the body remains completely intact. That was kind of silly.
» Sat Feb 19, 2011 12:47 am 
